AFRICA:

The tricky in-between world of Asian Africans
Daily Nation (subscription) - Nairobi,Kenya
Shailja, who now lives in San Francisco, California, speaks to every Asian who was born in the region and who left, either because they felt that they would ...

Bollywood designer to open shop in Johannesburg
Economic Times - India
JOHANNESBURG: Ace Bollywood designer Vikram Phadnis, whose creations were seen in the recent release "Salaam-e-Ishq", is to open an exclusive store here ...
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This is the incredible true story of Ferzanna Riley, a Pakistani Muslim who could not be broken, despite an abusive family and their extreme efforts to enslave her. Her violent childhood, during which she was beaten on an almost daily basis, transformed her into a desperate and suicidal teenager, and led her to question the faith and culture she had been born into.

As soon as she could Ferzanna fled to London ostensibly to take up a place to study law but soon dropped out of her course and refused to go back to the family home. Fearing for the safety of her younger sister Ferzanna managed to help her escape their domineering parents and live with her. But through trickery and treachery, a shocking turn of events led Ferzanna and her younger sister to go to Pakistan, where they were held captive by their own family with the intention of forcing them to marry in order to regain the izzat (honour), which their parents felt had been destroyed by their life in London.

Inspiring, moving and always uplifting, this astonishing story paints a picture of an amazing woman who broke the cycle of abuse and survived against all the odds.

Ferzanna Riley was born into a Muslim family in Karachi, Pakistan. From the age of three and a half Ferzanna was brought up in Lancashire where she attended a sixth form convent for two years. She worked for The Ealing Gazette and Harrow Observer as a journalist, before going to university to study law. She is now married to her English husband and has one child.

Ferzanna is a non-executive director of the Roshni Charity. Roshni was founded in 2002 by a small group of individuals from the black and ethnic minority (BME) communities, led by Glasgow businessman Ali Khan, who were particularly concerned about unreported child abuse within their own communities. Given the high profile of child abuse within the wider Scottish population, Roshni was established with several specific aims, including, to bring child abuse and neglect in BME communities out into the open, to increase awareness of the multiple forms of child abuse, to empower children and adults to talk about, report and challenge abuse within their communities and to promote access to services for child victims of abuse see www.Roshni.org.uk for

One of the world’s most advanced food delivery network systems came to London last week - and it meant City workers received a free curry for breakfast.

The curries were delivered to commuters by six ‘tiffin-wallahs’, aged 50-60, who arrived in the UK yesterday from Mumbai, India, where they are part of a 175 year old tradition

Every day in Mumbai, around 5,000 tiffin-wallahs deliver home-cooked lunches to workers across the city using a complex coding and numbering system painted on each tiffin tin – and despite an astonishing 400,000 transactions every day, there is never a single delivery mistake.

The tiffin-wallahs – all of whom are ancestors of Hindu Martha, and belong to the Mumbai Dabbawala Association – are visiting the UK on a week-long cultural exchange organised by Indian restaurant group Tiffinbites.

The trip is the first abroad for four of the six tiffin-wallahs – the other two were special guests of Prince Charles at his wedding to Camilla in 2005, after he met the tiffin-wallahs on a trip to Mumbai in 2003.

The Indian equivalent of ‘packed lunch boys’, tiffin-wallahs are an esteemed and revered profession in India, where the illiterate and poorly educated wallah-boys are admired for their astonishing acquired mathematical skill and memory aptitude.

Jamal Hirani, CEO and Founder of Tiffinbites, said: “The tiffin-wallahs are an amazing legendary group of people, most of whom had fathers and grandfathers who were also wallah-boys.

“Their remarkable memory skills, as well as their sheer dedication to their trade and hardworking nature, make them an inspiration to those of us who rely computers, email and mobile phones to do our jobs.”

Today’s curry delivery took place in Paternoster Square, next to St Paul’s cathedral, where tiffin-wallahs balanced tiffin baskets weighing 80kgs on their heads while handing out food.

Based on the concept of the tiffin tin, Tiffinbites has four restaurants across London which provide City workers with good quality, convenient and authentic Indian food. Tiffinbites offers real Indian food served the real Indian way, and the name itself is directly inspired by the Tiffin-wallahs.

Desis In Odd Places Part III
By Soam Acharya
Well color me brown and sit me down, I would have never guessed about a Shaivite Hindu temple smack dab in Kauai, Hawaii, so I guess this qualifies. This is the Iraivan temple and this being the Communications Age, it comes with its own ...
Adda

''The Namesake" - Loved the book, loved the movie! Must see.
By Humeira(Humeira)
And, again, there's nothing to distinguish their son from thousands of other ABCDs -- American-born Confused Desis. Except, perhaps, his name: Gogol. Bestowed in a pinch at the hospital, the name is a stopgap label that becomes an ...
LIFE AND ARTHRITIS

Babies born to South Asian women are at a higher risk of perinatal ...
News-Medical.net - Sydney,Australia
For example, it is shorter in South Asian and black women, suggesting that complications may occur before the 41 week induction point in these women. ...
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Unite against poverty and terror, Musharraf tells Asian nations
Pakistan Link - Inglewood,CA,USA
ISLAMABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf on Friday urged the Asian nations to work jointly to eliminate poverty and backwardness. ...
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